Gibraltar, España

....okay it was UK territory....:)

Did you know....

......that Gibraltar is almost the southernmost tip of the Iberian
Peninsula, and serves as a British overseas territory.
......Gibraltar consists of a long limestone mountain, which has as
may as 140 caves. Its highest point is at 426 m.
.....The official language of Gibraltar is English and the unofficial
one is Spanish.
.....Gibraltar and the Moroccan mountain of Jbel Musa are known as
‘The Pillars of Hercules’. This is because it is believed that
Hercules used them as his handgrips, when he decided to pull Africa
and Spain apart.
....the people of Gibraltar are British citizens.
.....and WE were there!

Before the sun was even stirring, two disgruntled Americans
unconsciously rolled into their showers, and a third bounced out of
hers and threw on the blow dryer! "GOOD MORNING!"
It was 6am.
You just never know with these Spanish buses so we deicided to venture
down to the bus station and see if what was posted online was, in
fact, reality. You can never be too certain with Spanish websites.
Normally, what happens to be going on at that moment is what is
happening.....at that moment.
But we thought we'd give it a lil' faith and venture to the bus
station for the potential 8am bus. There wasn't one, so we were up,
SMILEY and bought our tickets for 10:15. We had a nice breakfast and
chat and good round of laughs for a few hours. The sun was coming up
and it was decorating the slowly descending night time canvas with
beautiful brilliant morning colors
(photo #1).
Hopped on the bus and started our trek to Gibraltar. We stopped in
various towns along the way (Chiclana, San Fernando, Tarifa,
Algerciras, etc.) When you get to La Linea (short for La Linea de la
Concepcion) you depart from the bus and simply walk across the border.
In Tarifa, I had to use what is commonly known as the "pee dance" to
convince the driver to let me take a quick lil' bathroom break.
The voyage up the mountain from Tarifa was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! Such
lush mountainside. IT was all green, and full of funny trees. Some of
which were completely round, and others were tall. There were flowers
all over (funny thing since it's the middle of November).
Down the mountain and across the Strait of Gibraltar you could see
Africa. I thought it only necessary to be listening to Toto's Africa
while viewing it (thought of you the whole time dad. P.s. Please pass
along this anecdote especially to Alejandro!).....Beautiful Southern
Spanish mountainside viewing the water and such...."I BLESS THE RAINS
DOWN INNN AFFFFRRRIIICCAAAAAA....I BLESS THE RAINS!"

(Photo #2)

[wow this is already so long and we haven't even gotten there yet.
Okay I'm going to practice making this short, clear and sweet. Sorry.]

La Linea - met at the bus station by some friends from the teaching
program. It was lovely to have open arms full of hugs and big grins at
this foreign bus station. We all walked across the border together. It
was a joke. We had our passports flung open, they barely looked, the
border was a landing strip for the airport and then we crossed into
British territory.
Gibraltar - was basically like a small lil' England. Smaller streets,
all English signs, mega shopping, and even the phone booth were the
funny red British ones! There were many languages being spoken and
what seemed like people form all over the world.
The Rock - we took a cable car up to the top. 8 pounds = ~ 9.50euros
= ~ 14 USD. But...oh welll....It's not like we do this every day and
it's a tourist thing, but so worth it!
Cable Car had the BEST view of the the WHOLE entire Valley, Port,
rock, mountain, Gibraltar, La Linea and more of Spain!
(Photos 3 & 4)

There were the monkeys! and wow! Okay, I LOVE The zoo! I LOVE the
Monkeys! Never seen them in the wild. IT was amazing, we were so close
all the time. One even jumped on my friend Lisa's back. Photo #5. It
was eating potato chips, she went into for the picture, he tip toed
out to the edge of the branch, shook the branches and then jumped on
her back.

We spent the day exploring the ginormous rock. It had the Moorish
Castle, Ape Caves, regular other caves which um didn't go in because
they were.........were uhhh....closed....? Yeah, they were closed.
We'll go with that.
:p

There were a million old stairs, and funny little remnants of stone
houses/castle parts, lovely flowers and fun trails to hike through.
Basically it's like a "Free for all", climb at your own risk amusement
park. There are really nice houses up there as well, which of course
were flying the UK flag HIGH and PROUD. There are paved roads and
LOADS of tourist buses who really do'nt watch out for your toes in the
slightest.

Photo #6 - My friend Sophia from Massachusetts. Those were funny
signs! We were about to get on the cable car.

After departing we decided it would be a good idea to walk to the
other end of the island. Why? I don't know. Did we get there? Kind of.
We got to a beautiful point, after walking along a good 20 minutes and
going through some tunnels which came out of the blue we came across a
beautiful docking point. That was enough. we never made it to the end
to see this Lighthouse called Europa Point. But I'm pretty sure our
feet would have KILLED us slowly and surely.

Then we walked back. That was the BEST part of the day.
No, that's not true.

The whole day was grand.
Bus back and we were all sprawled all up in front of the bus, legs
over here and feet over there. Speaking of legs and feet, I am pretty
sure I am the tallest person at my school. (I'm not even that tall,
but maybe all the short people work at my school)
I have big feet. They are not getting any smaller. I long for cute
shoes that fit.

Photo # 7 is just my favorite lil' guy.

Souvenirs?
Photos, memories,soar feet and a check on my lifes "to-do" list. The
only things I bought were....a) the two bus tickets b) the most
WONDERFUL month-making smoothie (iced and blended coffee amazing
goodness with soy and sorbet and magical wonders), c) tea at this
funny Iriish bar totally DECKED out super severely for Christmas), d)
the Cable Car ride and e) a Diet soda at the end of the day.

Today is officially 4 weeks from my non-drinking Sabbatical.

I think for Thanksgiving weekend I will go to Seville for one night
and visit a friend, and together we will visit another friend. Then my
friend will come back to Cadiz with me and we'll ust enjoy some home
made cookin'. I'm thinking if I can coerce him into seafood, well get
some mussels and oysters.... he he :p

Today is lay around the house in jammies, and glasses. Wishin' hover
shoes were a real thing and workin' on Christmas card making.

Hugs to all!
~"Indiana" Jones